Agent Skill best practices

Create high-quality, reliable Agent Skills by following these established design principles and patterns.

Design for discovery

The most important part of a skill is its description. This is the only information the model has before activation.

• Be specific: Use keywords that are likely to appear in user prompts (for example, “audit,” “security,” “refactor,” “migration”).
• Define the trigger: Clearly state when the skill should be used (for example, “Use this skill when the user asks to review a PR for performance regressions”).
• Avoid overlap: Ensure your skill descriptions are distinct from one another and from the general capabilities of the model.

Progressive disclosure

The “context window” is a shared resource. Use a three-level loading system to manage context efficiently.

1. Metadata (name + description): Always in context (~100 words).
2. SKILL.md body: Loaded only after the skill triggers (<5k words).
3. Bundled resources: Loaded only as needed by the model.

Best practice: Keep the SKILL.md body focused on core procedural instructions. Move detailed reference material, schemas, and examples into separate files in a references/ directory.

Degrees of freedom

Match the level of instruction specificity to the task’s fragility.

• High freedom (text-based instructions): Use when multiple approaches are valid or decisions depend heavily on context.
• Medium freedom (pseudocode or scripts with parameters): Use when a preferred pattern exists but some variation is acceptable.
• Low freedom (specific scripts, few parameters): Use when operations are fragile and error-prone, or a specific sequence MUST be followed.

Bundle resources effectively

Leverage the skill’s ability to include scripts and assets to extend the agent’s capabilities.

• Use scripts for deterministic tasks: If a task can be automated with a script (for example, running a linter, fetching data from an API), bundle it in the scripts/ folder.
• Agentic ergonomics: Ensure scripts output LLM-friendly stdout. Suppress verbose tracebacks and provide clear, concise success/failure messages.
• Provide templates: Include common file headers or boilerplate code in the assets/ folder to ensure the agent produces consistent output.

Anatomy of a great skill

A well-structured skill directory organizes its resources into specialized sub-folders.

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md       (Required) Core instructions and metadata
├── scripts/       (Optional) Executable logic (Node.js, Python, etc.)
├── references/    (Optional) Documentation to be loaded as needed
└── assets/        (Optional) Templates and non-executable resources

Security and privacy

Design your skills with security in mind to protect your workspace and data.

• Avoid hardcoded secrets: Never include API keys or passwords in your skill’s scripts or documentation.
• Review third-party skills: Inspect the SKILL.md and scripts of any skill before installing it from an untrusted source.
• Limit scope: Design skills to be as focused as possible to minimize the potential impact of errors.